With Scholastic’s “Meet Mae Jamison” activity, students have the unique opportunity to meet a super scientist! Students can read about her incredible journey from childhood to NASA, where in 1992 she took part in the Endeavour space shuttle mission, becoming the first black female astronaut.

Plus, students can read aninterview transcriptwith Mae, where she discusses everything from taking off in the space shuttle, what it was like being in space, the difficult training leading up to the trip, and how she’d like to go to Mars.

Learning Objectives

This article is a part of the "Challenging the Space Frontier" mission. In the course of participating in this activity, students will:

learn about the history of space exploration in the context of the "space race" during the Cold War;